Left high and dry

It was not until I was forced to rely on a wheelchair, back in 2011, that I understood just how burdensome it can be to get around this city. In that same year, Uber began its operations and has ever since been insulting New York City wheelchair users by refusing to provide accessible vehicles.

Now the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is proposing a plan that it claims would require Uber and other ridesharing companies to start offering accessible rides. It is not nearly good enough.

What I remember most vividly about that difficult time in my life six years ago is the shock and frustration when I realized many elevators in subway stations were broken, public entrances with ramps were impossible to find, mechanical lifts in public buses weren't fully functional, and only a limited number of wheelchair-accessible cabs roamed our city's streets.

Access-A-Ride is available for people like me, but it's epically inefficient.

Since then, I, along with other New Yorkers with disabilities, have fought for equal access to every service provided by or regulated by the city, including taxis.

The fact that the TLC's fake accessibility proposal for Uber would do virtually nothing to put more wheelchair-accessible vehicles on the road is just another insult to the city's disability community.

Let's be clear: Uber would be more than happy to provide absolutely no options for wheelchair users in New York. The company only agreed to put a few accessible vehicles on the road - literally - after years of bad press because of activists like myself calling them out on their discriminatory practices.

The new TLC proposal will basically allow ridesharing companies like Uber to continue operating as usual. In a city with more than 90,000 ridesharing cars on the road, this plan would require as few as 5,000 to be accessible. On top of that, Uber and its counterparts would be allowed to meet its "requirements" by transferring its obligation to provide accessible trips to green taxis that are already accessible.

This is nothing but a slap in the face for my counterparts and I who have tirelessly pushed for Uber to be held accountable and provide real service to wheelchair users. What it reveals is that the TLC is willing to bend over backwards to allow a multi-billion-dollar company to continue ignoring the needs of the disability community.

The real problem here is that the TLC is proposing to require that only 25% of ridesharing trips be accessible, rather than putting an actual requirement on the number of accessible vehicles on the road. That language of the proposed regulations allows companies like Uber to get away with using just a small percentage of its own vehicles - along with dispatching other vehicles, like green taxis - to provide accessible trips.

What wheelchair users have actually demanded, and what the TLC has thus far refused to put forth, is a requirement for 50% of ridesharing vehicles to be accessible, just as is required of the city's yellow taxi industry. It is frankly shocking that city officials have never even considered this kind of sensible plan.

If the city is unwilling to make Uber do the right thing, it should at least force the company and others like it to pay into a fund that would create additional transportation options for the disability community. The time for the TLC to stand up to Uber and make them get with the program and serve all New Yorkers is well overdue.

Right now, there is a 50-cent surcharge on all taxi trips to help fund accessible vehicles in the yellow taxi industry. As long as Uber refuses to provide more of its own accessible vehicles, it should pay several dollars per trip into that same fund - so at least it can provide some real support for accessible taxis.

Most people take for granted their ability to move freely. I once did too. But the bottom line is that the TLC needs to treat us like everyone else, show respect for the city's wheelchair users and stop pushing its fake accessibility plan for Uber. We just aren't buying it.